FILTH, WEALTH AND SIN.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160711, 26 July 1920, Page 5

FILTH, WEALTH AND SIN.

—— NEW ZEALANDER’S OPINION OF JAVA. Mr Byron Brown, of Otaki, .who is well known for his breezy way of expressing himself on election platforms and in print, has lately been visiting Java, and does not care for it. The following is a passage from a letter which he wrote a week or two ago from Sydney to a friend in 'Wellington:— “Been here for the last three weeks, waiting for my boat to leave for England. There was no chance of getting to London from Java, not even .by bribing tho, captain. Even that avenue has been shut out by so many people offering the bribes. About 50 commercial men were held-up, and we all had to got back to Australia to get to England. Some of us managed it; the majority are, as far as I know, still looking for a boat to bring them. I am to leave here by the Port Melbourne, a big cargo boat. She will probably land me in Blighty at the wane of the summer, with the prospects oi all winter to do my business. After tho boiling tropics, I would rather not lose the good effects of the apprenticeship that has fitted me to endure the reward of ray many sins in a prospective hereafter! My recording angel has not been working overtime lately. I’ve been too busy. Work is a fine occupation to keep a man from over-sinning. FULL OF SIN. ' “Hie Dutch East Indies are all too full of sin for a New Zealander to teach them anything. Humanity is all too sordid and unlovely in these islands, where ‘every prospect pleases and only man is vile.’ Even the Dutch boast of little beauty, and their women aro coarse, hefty, loud-voiced, and mannerloss. The men have contaminated their white blood with the Malays, and the produced half-cast is an abomination on the fair surface of their beautiful islands. These pied humans are the lowest-down stamp of humanity I have ever seen, and some day they are going to give their white progenitors a heap of trouble. The Dutch can see it coming, and are doing what they can to save the situation. There is a standing army of about 100,000 Malays, officered by Dutchmen, Nothing easier than for this army to take charge of the whole country, and they will, if indications that I saw count for anything. BRITISH SUPERIORITY. “Like all Britishers, I have taken it for granted that we are the salt,of the earth, but I never realised how superior we were until I saw the Easterns as represented by all kinds of them in Java, Borneo, Sumatra, and the Celebes Islands. With all our faults, we are aa far above these people as the sun is above the earth. Kipling’s ‘Lesser breeds without the law’ is a line of inspired and intellectual truth, that only those who have seen can appreciate. If these sons of Ham ever get to Heaven, the Britishers who have won

to Glory will be justified in petitioning for an Act of Segregation. In offering the suggestion to you because yout chances of the Heavenly Kingdom arc fairly good, and you might take the hint and for the sake of sanitation, lead the revolt. There are bound to be a few other choice souls up there who will help you. FILTH AND WEALTH. “I saw dirt enough in Java to pollute the ocean. As a matter of fact the harbours are foul with filth. The canals that run through the towns carry on their tides nameless things that are being added to by the natives at every turn. In all this foulness and filth there is a welter of wealth going on among the Europeans. Fortunes are being piled up at the rate of millions a year. Sugar can be produced at a cost of Id a lb. It is sold retail for lOd. One sugar company, with a capital of one million guilders, paid last year six millions in dividends. All this, and more, has been going on during and spree the war, but there are now indications of the turn of the tide. There was a decided slackening of the industrial and commercial boom at the time I left.”